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Female entrepreneurs who contract with the federal government agree on this much: The process is tedious, time-consuming, wonky — and worth it. After all, the federal government is the nation’s largest employer and the world’s largest consumer of goods and services.

But to be a true contender, you've got to know what you're doing.

That was the point of a ChallengeHER event I attended yesterday at the Federal Reserve of Richmond’s Charlotte office, hosted by the Small Business Administration and American Express OPEN, the company’s small business arm.

The event featured representatives from agencies as well as female entrepreneurs who’ve successfully won coveted federal contracts and want to help others.

After all, the federal government yet again missed it goal of awarding 5 percent of its contracts to women-owned businesses, giving them only $15.5 billion of the nearly $357 billion in eligible funds (about 4.4 percent).

Here are some of their best tips for nabbing those coveted contracts:

1. Tap free resources to learn the lingo, expectations and best practices.

Conversation at the event was peppered with acronyms, and you can bet that the application process for a federal contract is rife with wonky lingo, from "8As" (a certification for disadvantaged businesses) to "capability statements." So before diving in, do your research. Take advantage of free resources from organizations such as the SBA and Women in Public Policy (WIPP). Use their expertise to determine which agencies your business is best suited to target.

"Understand how to write a proposal," said Karen Lawrence, president of It's My Affair, an event management company. "Take classes, find someone, contact the SBA."

Naomi Pilosof Ionita talks about what she brings to Menlo Ventures from her years as one of what is still a small number of female tech leaders and from her experience as vice president of growth at Invoice2go and as a product lead at Evernote.